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20110226

White Light Patrols: unpaid taxpayer-volunteers better than SA cops

2011-02-26 Many South African taxpayers have to spend just about all their off-work hours and their own money to stop armed-attack gangs from murdering their families. The ANC-regime's own police force is increasingly criminal and dysfunctional. In Ficksburg next to the Lesotho border, one citizen-patrol is getting professional pro-active policing-results from their dedicated, hard and unpaid work. Farmers in this region say they now fork out some R10,000 for their security measures. And they are still expected to pay their taxes even though they get no policing in return...

And a particularly vicious, vengeful murder, accompanied by hatespeech, was carried out against 69-year-old Ficksburg lavender-farmer, the son of a Venda missionary couple, the retired chemistry-scientist Dr Ernest Giesekke and his wife Eve, 77. Apparently the only thing 'robbed' from his farm Good Hope, was about $5 and a cellphone. The extremely excessive violence used to murder the scientist and assault his wife Eve, 77, indicated a high level of hatred towards the victims. Dr Gieseke’s head was first bashed in with a rock when he was near his homestead inspecting the water-tank ‘s pump which had apparently broken-down; then he was repeatedly stabbed with a screw-driver before his throat was slashed. The hatred also was made clear towards his wife Eve, 77: she was told by the three victorious attackers while they assaulted the old farm-wife in her bedroom: "you don't have a husband any longer'. The farm attack was well-planned: the electric fencing around the homestead was already cut a week earlier. A team of police, the Gumtree Farmers Association, farm workers and the Ficksburg security- and safety committee all teamed up to track down the three attackers and managed to track down two. However SAPF sr-supt. Mptantsi Makhele insisted that this was just a plain old murder-robbery: although admitting that the attackers had only 'robbed Mrs Gieseke’s handbag containing R50 and a cellphone". The first person on the scene was James Brown, owner of the private Alarm Security company, who discovered the murdered scientist’s body and the badly traumatised wife. Dr Gieseke was the third Ficksburg farmer within the previous three years.http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/8a4dbddf1bf1425dba96ff9123f7a9ed/25-01-2010-05-14/Filantroop_vir_R50_vermoorGiesekke obituary: http://www.saci.co.za/obituaries.html

There also were lucky escapes: Willem and Anna Serfontein survived the attack on December 27 2010 at their Ficksburg homestead. Mr Serfontein had stepped outside to turn on his water-pump and when he returned to the homestead his wife was attacked by three black men who were trying to strangle Anna to death with an electric cord. He jumped in and was injured while fighting with the men in an attempt to save her life. He was bashed over the head with an iron bar and sustained heavy bruising across his body as well as an injured hand and arm. He was treated at a local hospital. The Volksblad report does not describe how the couple were rescued and whether anything was stolen at all. http://www.volksblad.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Soveelste-plaasaanval-in-Oos-Vrystaat-20101228

However the Ficksburg security plan is beginning to work, said Hennie Gerber of Free State Agriculture's rural security volunteer-group. "Thanks to the security plan, crime has dropped in some districts between 80% and 100%." Their White Light Patrols are assembled from trained local unpaid volunteers from the farming and urban communities - and they don't just patrol, they also collect advance intelligence to prevent farm-attacks. Their radio network is the most important link between the White Light Patrols and the farmers: these volunteers know the area 'like the palm of their hand': able to reach farmers under attack much faster than can the police. These patrols have already prevented several farm attacks, the volunteers have also arrested suspects and confiscated stolen goods on their patrols through the mountains and right up to the Lesotho border. The farmers are given much blame for being attacked: they are 'being negligent and thus raise their security risks,' according to the chief of the reaction unit, Jan van Niekerk. "A Boer who is not yet involved in the security network is seen as a 'weak link'. It's costing these hard-working, food-producing SA taxpayers many tens of thousands of Rands extra a year - just to protect their families from the vicious armed black attack-gangs which carry out their raids from Lesotho: Said Gottfried Pretorius, farming just outside Ficksburg:"I spent some R10,000 a month on security just to get a little peace of mind'. Timmy Wille, a neighbour, says 'it's a given that there will be farm attacks and they will want to steal, but one has to make manageable plans around those facts." Wille's father was murdered during a farm attack in the 1980s he said - but he 'refuses to live in fear'. He 'doesn't want to live in a prison', and thus he has 'no burglar bars at his homestead although I keep the farm-gates locked'.http://www.rapport.co.za/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Witlig-patrollies-is-rowers-se-moses-20110226

other sources:

Obituary, Ernst Werner Giesekke (30 March 1941 – 23 January 2010) Ernst Giesekke was brutally murdered on his farm on 23rd January, 2010, by callous thieves who gained little for themselves but have caused continuing distress to family, neighbours and friends.Ernst was born on 30th March, 1941, at Tshakhuma, Venda, Limpopo, of missionary parents. His father, Rev. DW Giesekke, became Bishop of the Lutheran Church while his mother, Mrs Elisa Kopp-Giesekke, was a social worker and teacher. The family lived in the mission station house at Tshakhuma, where Ernst attended Levubu Primary School, and then went on to Pietersburg (now Polokwane) High School. Thereafter, he undertook science degrees at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, graduating in due course in 1965 with a Ph. D. in Physical Chemistry. Even in his first year at Wits, he was recognised as an exceptional student with a strong work ethic and proved, as well, to be an exceptional researcher with a keen academic mind. During 1966/7 he undertook post-doctoral research in nuclear magnetic resonance at the University of Illinois.True to his heritage, he accepted a teaching post at the then University College of Fort Hare where he was appointed Professor of Physical Chemistry and Head of Chemistry. In 1969, he met and married Dorothy Evelyn (Eve) Hillhouse, who was then a librarian at Rhodes University. Two daughters, Cathy and Christine, were born to the family. The period at Fort Hare was difficult, with a heavy teaching load and little opportunity for research. During that time, he was also responsible for the design and construction of the new chemistry building , and managed the chemical stores! These onerous responsibilities together with his conscientiousness brought about a protracted period of physical ill-health, from which he slowly recovered. After 11 years at Fort Hare, he accepted a post at Mintek (then National Institute of Metallurgy) in Johannesburg as Chief Scientist in the Mineral and Process Division in order that he might return to chemical research. His work at Mintek was wide-ranging, and he became an expert in mineral flotation and, more generally, in surface chemistry, producing numerous important research reports in this area. In 2001, he retired from Mintek as Head of the Process Chemistry Division. Ernst and Eve retired to Ficksburg in the Eastern Free State where they worked hard, under trying conditions, in successfully developing a Lavender and Berry farm. It was on this farm that he was mercilessly attacked and murdered, the third farm murder in the district within the last two years. His colleagues and friends mourn this tragic and needless loss of a true gentleman, a valuable and valued friend and colleague, and offer their sincere condolences to Eve, Cathy, Christine and other family members. http://www.saci.co.za/obituaries.html

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '